Portable roll and measure machine



Feb. 3, 1959 I J. M. BlEN 2,871,568

I PORTABLE ROLL AND MEASURE MACHINE Filed Sept. 14, 1956 2 Sheets-Shet 1' INVENTOR. Q flax MB/[A Feb. 3, 1959 J. M. BIEN 2,871,568

PORTABLE ROLL AND MEASURE MACHINE Filed Sept. 14, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States PORTABLE ROLL AND MEASURE MACHINE Jack M. Bien, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application September 14, 1956, Serial No. 609,942

7 Claims. (Cl. 33-129) This invention relates generally to measuring machines and more particularly to machines for rolling and measuring dry goods, materials such as cloth, ribbons, laces, etc.

Dry goods materials such 'as cloth, ribbons and laces, after manufacture, are generally rolled onto some convenient holder for easy handling and storage. The usual types of holders are cylinders, reels and boards. It is often necessary therefore, in the distribution of such dry goods materials to the consumer, to roll a portion of the material from one such holder to another and, at the same time, measure the amount of material so transferred. Machines have been developed which perform this operation but their usehas been largely limited to manufacturers and large wholesalers because they are quite large, and expensive. Small wholesalers and retailers have been forced to perform this operation by hand.

In recent years attempts have been made to provide a smaller, less expensive roll and measure machine to meet the needs of the small wholesaler and retailers. None of these attempts, prior to my invention has been particularly successful, however, principally because the machines were still unnecessarily complex and therefore difficult to operate, or were not sufficiently versatile. That is, these machines were limited to use with only one type of dry goods material, or only one type of holder.

It is therefore a major object of this invention to provide a roll and measure machine which is satisfactory for use by small wholesalers and retailers.

It is another object of this invention to provide a small, relatively lightweight roll and measure machine which is easily portable and yet will handle all of the usual widths of dry goods material.

A further object of this invention is to provide a roll and measure machine as above described with such versatility that it may be used for cloth, ribbons, laces and other similar dry goods items and is easily adaptable to handle cylinders, reels or boards.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a roll and measure machine as described above which is simple to operate and inexpensive to construct.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, read in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of my roll and measure machine showing the ma- 2,871,568 Patented Feb. 3, 1959 Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 showing the chuck supporting a reel; and

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 3 showing the chuck supporting a board.

In general, the operation of rolling and measuring dry goods material is performed by my machine in the following manner.

A supporting apparatus is provided which rotatably supports a material holder adapted to receive a quantity of material. The supporting apparatus is power-driven and rotates the receiving material holder causing it to take up material from a supply material holder. As the material is rolled between the holders it is passed through a measuring device which indicates the quantity of material transferred.

Referring now to the drawings, and particularly to Figure 1 thereof, where my machine is shown set up to handle sheet type dry goods such as cloth, it will be seen that the machine, designated generally by the numeral 10, consists principally of three elements; the supporting apparatus 11 for the receiving material holder, the supporting apparatus 12 for the supply material holder and the measuring apparatus 13.

These elements are assembled on a base 14 which is small enough and light enough to be readily portable. The base 14 may be mounted on a stand of its own or secured to any suitable supporting surface, such as a counter top, by clamps 15.

Tunnel-like receptacles 16 through 22 are provided which extend laterally through the base 10 and are adapted to receive and hold the various components of the machine, as will be explained later.

In the set-up shown in Figure 1 the receiving holder supporting apparatus 11 consists of two upright supports 23 and 24 mounted opposite each other near the front end of the base 14. The uprights have foot portions 25 and 26 extending from their lower ends at right angles to the main body of the uprights. The foot portions are shaped to slidably fit into either end of any of the base receptacles 16 through 22. In the set-up of Figure 1, where the uprights are positioned opposite each other the foot portions 25 and 26 are housed in opposite ends of the same base receptacle 16. The foot portion 26 is longer than the foot portion 25 and extends substantially past the longitudinal center line .of the base 14 when'it is housed to its hilt in the receptacle. This makes it possible for'the distance between the uprights to be considerably increased by sliding the foot 26 out of the receptacle 16, and thus allows easy adaptation of the supporting apparatus 11 to different sized receiving holders and therefore, to different widths of material.

The uprights 23 and 24 have shafts 28 and 29 mounted in their upper ends with the axis of the shafts extending from the uprights at right angles and substantially paralel to the base 14. The shafts 28 and 29 are journaled in the uprights so that they may be rotated therein.

The shaft 28 in the upright 23 has a sprocket 30 fixedly secured to its outer end. A chain 31 engages the sprocket 3t) and connects it with a drive motor 32 which is mounted on the base 14 near the upright 23. The shaft 28 is thus power driven by the drive motor 32.

In the set-up shown in Figure l, I employ a cylinder type receiving material holder 33. To support the receivi which frictionally engage the ends of the cylinder 33so Thus, when the shaft 28 is turned by the drive motor '32, the

that the cylinder and mandrels rotate together.

asrness cylinder 33 is rotated and serves to take up material from a supply holder.

The supply holder supporting apparatus 12, in the set-up shown in Figure 1, has two supports 37 and 38 having foot portions 39 and 44) at one end. These foot portions 39 and 4t fit into opposite ends ofthe base receptacle'17 near the rear end of the base 14. The supports 37'and 38 have a cylinder type supply holder 41 positioned between their distal ends and extend downwardly and rearwardly from the base a sufficient distance to allowclearance between the material rolled on the supply cylinder and the base. To support the supply cylinder 41, shafts 42 and 43 are journaled in the distal ends of the supports 37 and 38. Mandrels 45 are mounted on the inner ends of the shafts and fit into the ends of the cylinder 41. The supply cylinder 41 may therefore be freely rotated to give up material to the receiving cylinder 33.

The foot 40 on one of the supports 38 is much longer than the foot on the other support and extends-substantially beyond the longitudinal center line of the base 14 when it is housed to its hilt in the base receptacle 17, like the foot portion 26 on upright 24. Thus, the distance between the supports 37 and 38 may be extended toadapt to different sized cylinders and material in the same manner as the receiving holder supporting appa ratus 11.

The measuring apparatus 13 which indicates the quantity of material transferred between the holders is positioned on the base 14 between the supply holder supporting apparatus 12 and the receiving holder supporting apparatus 11. The measuring apparatus 13 has a friction roller 47 which is rotatably mounted between the upper ends of two vertical supports 48 and 49. The roller supports 45 and 49 have foot portions 50 and 51 on their lower ends similar to the foot portions on the uprights 23 and 24 and are attached to the base by the housing of these foot portions in opposite ends of the base receptacle 18. The foot 51 on one of the roller supports is longer than the foot 50 on the other support and the friction roller 47 itself is extensible so that the measuring apparatus may be widened to adjust to different sizes of material in substantially the same manner as the receiving holder and supply holder supporting apparatus.

The friction roller 47 has a gripping sleeve 52 which is fixedly secured to the roller by projecting ribs 53 and hasa material. gripping outer surface 54 which frictionally engages the material when it is passed over the roller, causing the roller to rotate with the passing material. A press roller 55 is arranged to hold material passing over the friction roller 47 in frictional engagement with the gripping sleeve 52. Spring loading devices 56 are provided at each end of the press roller 55 to maintain a pressure contact between the press roller and the friction roller.

To direct material as it is passed from the supply cylinder 41 to the receiving cylinder 33 into engagement With the friction roller 47, two guide rollers 58 are rotatably mounted between the roller supports 48 and 49, one above the other, in axial alignment with and below the friction roller 47. Two guide bars 59 are provided ahead of the guide rollers 58 which cause a slight drag on. the material as it passes between them. This drag serves to keep the material taut as it passes through the measuring apparatus.- The guide bars are fixedly mounted in horizontally spaced relationship between two arms 60 which are formed integrally with the roller supports 48 and 49 at a point approximately medially of their height and extend rearward therefrom.

Thus, as material is rolled from the supplycylinder 41 to the receiving cylinder 33 it is passed through the .guide bars 59, between the guide rollers 58 and over the frictional roller 47. the material in frictional engagement with the gripping Since the press roller 55 holds sleeve 52, the friction roller 47 is rotated as material is drawn past.

To measure the quantity of material transferred an indicator 61 is attached to one end of the friction roller 47 by a coupling 62 to register the number of revolutions made by the friction roller. The indicator 61 is mounted on a bracket 63 attached to the outside of one of the roller supports 48 and 49.

Since certain types of dry goods material are sufficiently heavy to sag into contact with the base 14 as the material passes between the supply cylinder 41'and the guide bars 59, a rearward clearance roller 64 is rotatably mounted between two supports 65 and 66 to keep the material spaced from the base.

It should be understood that all of the rollers and bars associated with the measuring apparatus, as well as the clearance roller 64 and its supports 65 and 66 are capable of being extended to allow the passage. of wider material through the machine. bars are extendable by virtue of a telescoping construction and the supports 65 and 66 have foot portions 67 and 68 which are extensible in the same manner as the foot portions of the roller supports 48 and 49. Of course, the roller 47 is telescopic, within the sleeve 52, to allow for an extension.

From the above explanation of the set-up of my ma chine shown in Figure 1, it will be seen that to operate the machine a supply cylinder 41 containing a roll of inaterial such as cloth is rotatably supported between the supports 37 and 38. The free end of the material is then passed over the clearance roller 64, threadedtlirough the bars and rollers'of the measuring apparatus 13 in the manner explained above and attached to the receiving cylinder 33.

In handling sheet dry goods materials such as cloth, it. 15 often desirable to fold the material double as .it is.

rolled between the holders so that the roll of material on the receiving holder has only half the width of' th'e roll on the supply holder. To make this operation pos sible in my machine I provide a folder 76 which places a fold in the cloth as it passes from the measuring'ap paratus 13 to the receiving cylinder 33.

the usual, well-known types, is mounted on vertical supports 72 and 73 between the measuring apparatus 13 and the receiving holder supporting apparatus 11. The folder supports 72 and 73 have foot portions 74 and 75 on their respective lower ends which fit slidably in the basereceptacle 28 the same as the foot portions '011 the other supports, previously described.

The folder supports 72 and 73 have a cross bar 76 connected between their upperends to which the folder rack 71 is attached. To allow proper positioning of the folder rack 71 for the different types of material, the cross bar 76 may be angularly displaced about its axis to position the folder rack 71 at different angular positions withrespect to the base 14. Also, the folder supports 72 and 73 may be varied in height to regulate the vertical spacing between the folder rack 71 and the base.

Since the foot portions 74 and 75, like the other foot The rollers and The indicator 61 is set at its initial position and the drive motor 32 is started to rotate the receiving.

The uprights 23 and 24 are of The folder 70' consists of a folding rack 71 similar in design to any of rack 71 is slidable on the cross bar76 so that it may be repositioned for different widths of material.

The above discussion explains how my machine may be set up to roll dry goods materials, such as cloth, from one cylinder type holder to another. It should be understood, of course, that this is only one of several set-ups of which my machine is capable.

In Figure 2, I show my machine set up to roll dry goods materials such as ribbon from a reel to a board and measure the quantity rolled.

To convert to this set-up, the upright 24 is removed from its position opposite upright 23 near the front of the machine and is mounted at the rear of the machine on the same side as upright 23 where it serves as part of the This repositioning supply holder supporting apparatus. of the upright 24 is performed by withdrawing the foot 26 from the receptacle 16 and housing it in the receptacle 17 on the opposite side of the base 14-. The supports 37 and 38 must first be removed from the base receptacle 17, of course, to vacate the receptacle. The clearance roller 64, supports 65 and 66, the folder 70 and the folder supports 72 and 73 may be removed also, since they are not needed in this particular set up.

The chucks 34 at the upper ends of each of the uprights 23 and 24 have on their inner ends, in addition to the mandrels 35, two oppositely disposed, radially projecting arms 84) and an axial bore 81 (see Figure 3). The arms, which are used when the chuck is to support a board type material holder, have slots 82 which open through their distal ends and fingers 83 which are adjustably mounted in these slots 82 and project inwardly from the arms in axial alignment with, but the shaft 28.

The fingers 83 are slidably mounted in the slots 82 so that their radial spacing from the axis of shaft 28 may be adjusted for different sized boards. This adjustment is made possible by releasable wing nuts 84 and allows the fingers to be completely removed from the arms, when they are not in use. The fingers themselves have two blades 85 and 86 which lie in face-to-face relationship and are spring biased together. A board is supported by sliding it between the blades of the fingers 83 with one finger near one extremity of the board and the other finger near the opposite extremity.

A chuck 34 may be adapted to support a reel also by utilization of the axial bore 81. A pin 88 (Figure 4) is provided which fits into the axial bore 81 with one end extending therefrom. A locking screw 89 secures the pin in the bore. A reel is then mounted on the extended end of the pin and held in place by a nut 90 which threadedly engages the outer end of the pin. When it is desirable to fix the reel to the pin so that the reel may be driven by rotation of the chuck 34, a friction washer 91 is positioned between the reel and the nut 90 and the nut is tightened thereby gripping the reel between a shoulder 92 on the inner end of the mandrel 35 and the nut and washer.

It will be seen therefore, that the chuck 34. in my machine may be quickly adapted to support a reel, a board, or one end of a cylinder. This gives my machine great versatility.

In the set-up shown in Figure 2, the chuck 34 on the forward upright 23 is adapted to support a board 94 and the chuck on the rearward upright 24 is adapted to support a reel 95. The reel 95 serves as the supply material holder and supplies ribbon which is passed through the measuring apparatus 13 and rolled onto the board 94. The board 94 serves as the receiving material holder and is rotated by the motor 32.

It will be understood that the supply holder supporting apparatus 12, as it is set up in Figure 2, could be easily adapted to support a board instead of va reel thus providing a set-up'for rolling from board to board. Also, the receiving holder supporting apparatus 11 may be easily adapted to support a reel rather than aboard, so

spaced from that the machine may also be set up to roll from reelto' reel or from board to reel. One other possible arrangement is to position the uprights opposite each other, as in the set-up shown in Figure l, and adapt the chucks 34 to each support one end of an elongated board. With this set-up, materials such as cloth may be rolled from a cylinder to a board.

In the above disclosed embodiment of my machine the receiving holder supporting apparatus 11 is located at the front of the base 14, the supply holder supporting apparatus 12 is located at the rear, and the measuring apparatus 13 is positioned in between. It is also possible when my machine is adapted for the set-up shown in Figure 1, to position both the receiving holder and supply holder supporting apparatus at the same end of the base. This is done by mounting the supports 37 and 38 of the supply holder 41 in the receptacle 21 at the front of the base, and the clearance roller 64 and its supports 65 and 66 in the receptacle 22. The clearance roller 64 must, of course, be positioned highenough to allow clearance between the material and the drive motor With this set-up the operator, by standing at the front of the machine will have both the supply holder 41 and the receiving holder 33 within easy reach for making any necessary manual adjustments.

The drive motor 32 has a slow-fast control so that the speed of the operation of the machine can be regulated in any of the set-ups, and the motor is also reversible. In the set-up just described, where both the receiving holder and supply holder apparatus are positioned at the same end, it is possible to provide a drive sprocket on the shaft 42 of the support 37 and thereby connect supply holder 41 to the drive motor 32 rather than the receiving holder 33. Then, by reversing the drive motor the material may be rolled through the machine in reverse.

From this explanation of the many difierent setups possible with my machine because of the easy adaptability of the chucks to ditferent types of holders and the respositionability of the supporting apparatus, it will be appreciated that my machine is functionally the equivalent of several machines. This makes the machine particularly useful to dry goods merchants who handle a great variety of materials, since the one machine can be used to perform practically all of the desired operations.

As a further advantage, the components which make' up my machine are all readily removable from their mountings in the base 14 so that the machine can be quickly disassembled for storage or transport. Also, the base of my machine is sufficiently small and light to make the machine readily portable.

I have therefore provided a roll and measure machine which is ideal for use by small wholesalers and retailers of dry goods material. The machine is relatively inexpensive, readily portable and yet handles all of the standard types of material holders and dry goods materials.

While the form of my invention shown and described is fully capable of achieving the objects and providing the advantages herein stated, it is to be understood that this form is primarily illustrative of a presently preferred embodiment and that I do not mean to limit myself to the particular details shown other than as defined in the appended claims.

I claim 1. In a machine for rolling dry goods material from one holder to another and measuring the quantity of material so rolled, the combination of: a base having laterally disposed receptacles therein; two upright supports detachably connected to said base; a shaft rotatably mounted in each of said upright supports; a chuck attached to each of said shafts having a mandrel containing a bore and adapted to frictionally engage one end of a cylinder-type material holder, a pin adapted to fit said bore for rotatably supporting a reel-type material holder,

and arms extending radially with respect to said shafts:

and fingers removably attached to said arms'for rotatably supporting a board-type material holder; power means .for rotating one of-said shafts; extensible co-acting .rollers mounted on supports and disposed above said base, said rollers'frictionally engaging said material as it is rolled between said holders, whereby one of said rollers is rotated by said passing material; means connected'to said rotated roller and responsive to the rotation thereof to indicatethe quantity of material rolled between said holders; means coacting with said base receptacles and said rollers for extending the width of said. machine; and foot portions attached to said supports and adapted to be inserted into said base receptacles, said. foot portions being slidable in said receptacles' andtthereby laterally adjustable with respect to said base, and being'quickly removable from said receptacles without the use of tools for repositioning of said supports and, when desired, disassembly of said machine.

2. A machine for rolling dry goods material from one holder to another and measuring the quantity of material so rolled, comprising: a manually portable base having mounting means thereon; two supports removably mounted in said mounting means;-a shaft rotatably mounted'in each of said supports; a chuck mounted on said shaft and having an inwardly tapered mandrel containing a bore andwith gripping means on its periphery to frictionally engage one end of a cylinder-type material for measuring'the quantity of said transferred material;

and. means whereby said mounting means for said supports may beextended beyond the periphery of said base to enable said machine to handle materials. of

greater width than said base.

3. A machine for rolling dry goods material from onev holderto another andmeasuring the. quantity of material so rolled, comprising: a portable base; means detachably connected to said base for transferring material from one material holder to another, said transferring means including a power driven rotating chuck capable of supportingly engaging different types of material holders;

variable length coacting rollers mounted on said base and frictionally engaging said .material .as it is rolled between said holders, one of said rollersbeing rotated by said' passing material; means connected to said rotated roller to indicate the quantity of material rolled between said holders; and means 'for extending the width of said machine including supports for said holders and rollers mounted in said base and laterally extendible therefrom, said means also allowing'co-nversion of said machine to different types of dry goods materials and complete disassembly of said machine without the use of tools, when desired.

4. A machine for rolling dry goods material from one holder to another. and measuring the quantity of material so 'ro-lled, comprising: a manually portable base havinga plurality oflaterally disposed receptacles therein;,two upright supports detachably connected to. said base and normally disposed at one end thereof inopposing relationship; a shaft rotatably mountedin each of said upright supports; a chuck attached to eachof said shafts and having a mandrel containing an axial bore, said mandrel for frictionally engaging one end-ofa cylinder-type material holder, means including said axial bore and a pin adapted to be mounted in said. bore for rotatably supporting a reel-type material holder, and means including radially extending arms with axially extending fingers for rotatably supporting a board-type material holder; vpower means for rotating one of said shafts; coacting extensible rollers mounted on supports connected to said base in opposing relationship, said rollers frica tionally engaging said material as it is rolled betweensaid holders, oneof said rollers being rotated by said passing material; an indicating'device connected to said rotated ro ller-and'responsive: to the rotation thereofto indicate the quantity of material rolled between said holders; means mounted on supports connected to said base in opposing relationship for positioning a folding rack between said holders to permit folding of said material during rolling; supports in addition to said upright supports, disposed on .said base in opposing relationshiplaterally adjustable with respect to said base, and being quickly removable from said receptacles Without the use a of tools for repositioning of saidsupports and, whende sired, disassembly of said machine.

5. In a machine for rolling and measuring dry goods material, thecombination of: a manually portable base;. two upright supports mounted on said base; chuck means rotatably mounted in. each of said upright supports, said chuck means including a tapered mandrelhaving an axial bore therein, a pin adapted to be fitted snugly in said here with one end extending therefrom, and radially extending arms having axially projecting fingers removably mountable thereon; drive means for rotating the' chuck means in one of said uprights; co-acting rollers mounted on said base and frictionally engaging said material as it is rolled therebetween; and means connected to said rollers to indicate the quantity of material rolled between said holders.

6. A machine for rolling and measuring dry goods material comprising: a manually'portable base having a plurality of laterally disposed receptacles therein; two upright supports detachably "connected to said base and normally disposed atone end thereof in opposing relationship; chuck means rotatably mounted in each of said' upright supports, said chuck means being capable of supportingly engaging reels, cylinders and boards; drive means for rotating the chuck means in one of said uprightsup ports; two roller supports connected to said base inopposing relationship; coacting extendiblero-llers mounted between said roller supports, said rollers .frictionally engaging said materialas it is rolled therebetween; means connected to said rollers for. indicating the quantity of material rolled thereby; and foot portions attachedto all of said supports andv adapted to be inserted into said base receptacles, said'foot portions being slidable in said receptacles and thereby laterally extendible with respect to said-base, and being quickly removable from said receptacles without the use of'too-ls for repositioning of said supports on said base and, when desired, disassembly of said machine.

7. A machine for rolling and measuring dry goods material comprising: a base; supports mounted 0n saidbase and repositionable thereon; a shaft rotatably mounted in each of said supports; a tapered mandrel afiixed to one end of each-of said shafts and having gripping means on the periphery and including a concentric bore in each of said mandrels, parallel to the axis of: said shaft; a pin adapted to removably fit in reach of said bores with a portion extending therefrom, each of said pins having means on said extending portion for drivingly engaging a reel; releasable means in each of saidbores (References on following page) References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Gerber Sept. 1, 1953 Keyes June 23, 1874 5 Young Jan. 15,1901 Carver Aug. 13, 1901 McKellar Dec. 15, 1903 Speigel Feb. 14, 1928 Shaw Ian. 14, 1930,

Hatch Nov. 26, 1940 Gilbert et a1. Sept. 28, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS Canada July 13, 1954 

